I work with the BLM in both Northern California and Northern Nevada and have spent my past few weeks doing monitoring work for weed control tests on Medusahead (Taeniatherum caput-medusae), cheatgrass (Bromus Tectorum), Ventenata (Ventenata dubia), Japanese Brome (Bromus japonicus), and collecting seeds and specimens for Seeds of Success. In the field, I sometimes work alone, so it’s important to always be carrying the correct safety gear with you, even if it’s a routine trip to check on range compliance or look at a potential collecting site. My field office covers over two million acres and the majority of it does not have cell phone service and often in the field I see very little traffic or people.

-Horse Lake, NV

Because of the remoteness, I always make sure that my truck is outfitted with the equipment that I need in the chance that I get stuck, and that I always bring my handheld radio out in the field with me. I also carry extra water, batteries (both for the radio and the GPS unit), reference books, collecting equipment, sunscreen, bug spray, and most importantly I bring maps. The reason that I bring maps into the field with me is because  when I don’t know where I am going, it’s easy to break out a map and trace a route to where I need to go, especially because most of the roads are unmarked. Maps also provide me with topographical features, roads that are still in use and out of use, and  property ownership. While scouting the Great Basin, I’ve traveled to places like Mosquito Lake, Horse Lake, and Nut Mountain this week. At all of these places, I have found both unique plants and animals. So far this field season has been great and I can’t wait to see what other plants, animals, and places that I get to see.

-Dwarf Purple Monkeyflower located on a fire ant colony.

Feverishly in flowering bud

the soil lay anxious

awaiting its timid character to flourish

Gold-leafed

that of a sunflower

her face stalks the sun’s perch

At high noon she stands tall

and glorified

in the sky’s mid-day beams

Shadows cast

giants among the daisies

She radiates the Earth’s blushing hues

angular and long

they appear as one

together, they could live forever

Night begins to creep

as the day parallels the moon’s hazed glow

Stemming to the sun’s slump

she conforms to the world’s clock

Lashes hesitating in

and out

of the cuckoo bird’s chime

Side to side

she once coped restless and out of tune

trying to make lullaby of the world’s silence

Tonight, she spins in harmony

a low hum in the dawn air

around and around they go

The sun begins to dial

arms stretched along the horizon

The morning yawns

mimicking its prolonged reach

As the new day brings a quench for clearer skies

the dehydrated field

            wilts

in last night’s desert

Only she, wearing its dust like a mirage

a vision

in full bloom.

Have a nice day!

Danica Maloney

BLM West Eugene Wetlands

Oregon

Well we just wrapped up out week long training in Chicago and I have gotten back to Prineville, OR and got back into the routine of fieldwork.  My journey to Chicago was quite exciting as well as stressful.  I first traveled to Salem to meet a friend and spent some time hanging out before getting a ride to the Portland airport.  Then I waited and took a red-eye flight to Chicago which got in around 6am.  After waiting around a bit in the airport I called a taxi and got a ride to the hotel.  However, all the rooms were full so I would have to wait until noon to get into a room.  It took my sleep deprived brain a bit to process this, but eventually I decided that I would travel downtown and visit a couple of museums.  I trudged to the train station carrying my backpack filled with everything I would need on the trip.

Eventually I reached the train station and was slightly confused by the rustic setting and wondered if it was still in operation.  My fears were allayed shorty when people started to congregate.  I made my way onto the train and into the heart of downtown.  Then I decided to walk to the museums, a strangely relaxing experience.  It felt almost surreal walking through a bustling city seemingly caught up in all of the activity, but some how removed from the noise of traffic and the yells of traffic officers.  I eventually reached my destination, the Shedd Aquarium, where I had to wait for a while before getting in.  However, armed with my pay stub I not only managed to get free entrance, but the lady was nice enough to give me a free upgrade that essentially let me see the whole aquarium.  Then, after touring the fantastic museum, I headed over next door to the Field Museum.  I totally nerded out with their huge bird collection recognizing species that I have seen and fondly remembering those species moments in time.  However, I also was envious of the species I had managed to miss in my travels and especially those which I had never had the opportunity to see.  I managed to get through the mammal exhibit, also amazing, but I was running out of juice.  So I headed back to the hotel, which involved walking, waiting for the train, taking the train, walking some more and finally checking in.  Then I decided to find some where to eat before taking a shower and heading to bed.  Eventually I came back with a full stomach and finally was able to sleep.

Shedd Aquarium

The Field Museum

Owl exhibit at the Field Museum

The next morning we got our first look at the Chicago Botanic Garden and it was fantastic.  We attended a symposium which covered native seed restoration.  I was fascinated about the private business side of things, something that I had never really considered about native plant restoration.  Then throughout the rest of the days we had the opportunity to meet other interns and chat about out placements over lunch.  The several days of training seemed to pass by really quickly, but it was great to have the Botanic Garden as a backstop to slow things down again.  We learned about the history of SOS and took time to learn field survey methods, and brush up on plant identification and keying out plants.  However, one of my favorite activities was when I snuck out of lunch and headed over to the butterfly exhibit.  I managed to talk my way into a free ticket and then headed inside the building to gaze at the butterflies (the birds of the insect world).  I immediately recognized some of the species from my May Term in Borneo through Earlham College.  During that trip I even got to do a mini-project on butterflies.  Needless to say I was really excited.  It was great to see old friends such as the Clipper as well as new species like the incredible moth.  I had such a great time photographing the butterflies and trying to see them all I even snuck out a second time during lunch.  I also had some great chats with some of the employees at the butterfly exhibit.

Eventually Saturday rolled around and it was time to leave the hotel and the garden and head back to the airport.  I took the 10am shuttle and got into the airport around 10:45 and managed to get through security in 5 minutes (so much for the crazy long line at O’hair).  I spent the next 10 hours at the airport hanging out watching a DVD that I brought and reading.  I could have spent another day downtown, but I had already done that and I didn’t really want to worry about taking public transportation again and the though of missing my flight somehow was unacceptable).  Eventually I took my late night flight and got back to Portland where I was picked up by another friend and spent the night.  Then I took the Amtrak to Salem and then drove back to Prineville.  Phew, after all that travel I was ready to sit back and relax at home.  I managed to sit back on the couch and watch some golf before watching Lebron and the Cavs finally win their championship.  It was a fitting end to the week and all in all it was a wonderful week.

Three months have gone past with startling rapidity, can it be true that I only have two months left here in Grants Pass? It’s enough to make a girl want to cry! (but not really because it’s hot and I need to conserve water)

This past month, Kiki and I embarked on a new adventure– only to return to our old haunts with relative quickness. We were tasked with revisiting Cypripedium fasciculatum (CYFA) sites, especially small sites, as an algorithm projected the species might become extinct at these sites. We visited 15 high elevation (>3400 ft) and 15 low elevation sites that in the past had 10 plants or fewer to see if the algorithm holds true. The plants are inconspicuous in that they are just green leaves, much like the rest of the vegetation in our forests here. But the leaf shape is quite conspicuous, which made our hunt a little easier.

Cute little CYFA leaves. Sometimes they can be pretty small and hidden, so Kiki and I spent a lot of time at every site to make sure we didn’t missing anything~

Most of the plants we found were vegetative, but we did find a few flowering. The blooms are humble and subdued, it’s a very quiet plant.

CYFA in bloom~

As part of the project, Kiki and I also went to a handful of larger CYFA sites that had over 30 plants in the past. At one site we found 313 plants! It was wild and mildly overwhelming to count all those plants.

Our largest site had clumps of CYFA growing together. I thought it looked odd and uncomfortable.

We couldn’t believe how many plants we found! It was a very exciting day.

The CYFA habitat is a lot different from our old FRGE friend. CYFA tends to grow in moist areas with high overstory coverage. Usually there is a stream nearby. Our CYFA sites were mostly beautiful, but sometimes they required some bushwhacking to get through.

Some of our CYFA sites required us to climb through dense shrubbery to look for the little plants. This is Kiki performing that task.

We found no CYFA under these shrubs. Kiki isn’t happy about it.

While hunting for CYFA we stumbled upon two separate occurrences of Cypripedium montanum (CYMO), an orchid that is more rare and also more beautiful than CYFA. It was very exciting!

Bold and beautiful, making a scene, married to the stars– Cypripedium montanum.

Kiki will stop at nothing to get the perfect picture. She was covered in ants after this.

We saw a lot of cool things on our CYFA treks but for some reason did not take too many pictures. I guess we’re too hardened and jaded to record our journey anymore.

Phlox adsurgens, woodland phlox. Very pretty, the most gentle pink plant. A soothing flower to see.

A cool bug. A little jewel.

Our local seeds of success expert, Stephanie, invited us to join her on two separate occasions. We helped her collect Alopecurus geniculatus and Agoseris grandiflora on top of upper Table Rock in the hot hot heat. It was a fun day! On top of Table Rock isn’t a bad place to be. We also helped her to collect Danthonia californica, an oatgrass, in the hot hot heat of French Flat. Another beautiful place!

Kiki and Stephanie collecting on top of Table Rock.

Our crew collecting at French Flat.

Our CYFA task is completed and we’ve gone back to FRGE for the time being. Kiki is getting her Masters (!!) and her project involves FRGE habitat assessment. We’ve been revisiting our FRGE sites to collect in depth data about the vegetation, especially tree cover. This project will be part of a larger vegetation mapping project.

Our mentor, Stacy, joined us in a pretty area to help us with shrub identification! She is a great botanist and patiently helped us as we learned new species.

We saw a harmless little snake trying to stay warm in a sudden cold front. Super cute!

Kiki and I made a trip out to Prairie Creek Redwood State Park and hiked the James Irvine trail to Fern Canyon. It was so beautiful! A lovely hike, I highly recommend it.

Fern canyon! What a place.

We love the Pacific! (Even if I can’t take good selfies in front of it)

Of course, we still make time for scrabble.

and look haggard while we’re at it

Stay cool out there y’all!

Lillie P

As an intern in the Boston area for Seeds of Success East, I help to collect seeds from Connecticut to Maine, mostly along the coast in an effort to help restoration projects following Hurricane Sandy. We started the job only 3 weeks ago, and since then we have practiced our plant identification skills, visited collection sites, and learned about the restoration projects who will use many of our seeds. This last part has been my favorite part–learning about the management strategies and seeing how our work will ultimately help the community.

Last week, we met with Kevin Lucey and Lenny Lord at Odiorne State Park in New Hampshire to learn about their restoration project. Odiorne State Park is a gorgeous park that was full of people even in the middle of the week.

One of the many gorgeous parts of the New Hampshire coast at Odiorne State Park

As gorgeous as this park is, it is unfortunately overrun by invasive plant species. Norway Maple (Acer platanoides), Beach Rose (Rosa rugosa), Phragmites, Pepperweed (Lepidium latifolium), and Oriental Bittersweet (Celastris orbiculatus) cover the park, out competing many of the native species. Fortunately, the park is working on eliminating the invasive species–a massive undertaking. In order to accomplish this goal, they are scarifying the soil, applying herbicide, and planting native plants. This project is incredible. This attempt to remove all of the invasive is on a very large scale–larger than I’ve ever seen, and it was so interesting to learn about the decisions behind the management of the park.

Another project that we are working with is at Sachuest National Wildlife Refuge in Rhode Island.

This refuge has seen a lot of damage to the coastline due to changes in sediment transport from development along the coast, storms, and other human influences. These changes lead to the erosion of salt marshes and degradation of important habitats for birds such as the Saltmarsh Sparrow. In order to combat the erosion of the salt marshes, Rhode Island is working to dredge off coast and supplement the sand on the salt marshes. Following the addition of sand to the salt marshes, they plant the area such that invasive don’t have a chance to establish. Last year, the SOS-E interns collected Spartina alterniflora and Distichlis spicata for this site. These seeds were grown out and planted this winter.

The pictures above show the over 20,000 plants that were planted from seeds collected by Seeds of Success Interns. The plants were planted in islands as there were not enough plants to cover the entire area, and the fencing is to prevent geese from damaging the plants.

Thus far, my job has been extremely rewarding, especially in regard to learning about these two projects. Being able to see the seeds collected by other SOS interns in action was so incredible. It makes me very excited to begin seed collecting such that we can help all of this restoration projects.

Plant identification along the coast at Odiorne State Park

Until next time,

Julia Rogers

Seeds of Success Intern, New England Wildflower Society

The workshop in Chicago was a great experience, and I highly recommend going (if feasible) to all future CLM interns that are thinking about it. The first day we attended a symposium at the Chicago Botanic Garden called “Seed Sourcing for Restoration in a Changing Climate.” We were fortunate to be able to hear from recent academic researchers as well as professionals that work for various government agencies, including: Dr. Julie Etterson, University of Minnesota Duluth; Dr. Matt Horning, USDA Forest Service; Jack Pizzo, M.S., The Pizzo Group; Greg Houseal, program manager, Tallgrass Prairie Center; Peggy Olwell, plant conservation lead in the BLM.

Q & A session

At the end of the day, we had plenty of daylight left to explore the garden.

I also recommend eating at the garden’s cafe at least once during your stay. Their veggie burgers and grilled portabella mushroom salad are amazing options for the vegetarians out there. The brat and cheddar beef burger were also a favorite for the omnivores.

CLM interns hard at work in the classroom

We reviewed the protocol and methods for the SOS program, and even for an intern that does not work specifically with SOS, I enjoyed the training and hope to be able to be a part of the program in the future — perhaps a second internship! There was also a “crash course” in the botany of the West, which was extremely helpful. I look forward to going out into the field in my free time to practice plant identification.

practice with plant identification and seed collection

plant press demonstration

I would also like to point out that the amount of resources they provided all interns with was nothing short of impressive. We received two binders and also a flash drive, full of information that was organized to perfection. So many kudos go out to both Krissa and Rebecca for everything they do for us.

I am most grateful for all of the amazing people I had the chance to meet and get to know. The Wyoming interns and those close by are planning a camping trip / 4th of July get-together in Lander, and I cannot wait to see them again.  From the West to the East coast, and even all the way from Alaska, we are as diverse as the plants and wildlife we observe, while our passions for conservation and field work bring us all together.

a beautiful welcome back home to Wyoming

Cheers,

Valerie

Pinedale, Wyoming

It has been an eventful few weeks in Vernal, Utah. June brought sweltering heat and lots and lots of ripening fruits and seeds. We took a break from our seed collecting to monitor some rare, endemic cactus, Sclerocactus wetlandicus. This was our first big monitoring project of the season and though we learned a lot, it was a bit of a bummer. Many of last year’s healthy cactus were trampled, munched on, or just GONE! These are the sacrifices that are made when land is multi-use. Many of our plots were adjacent to drill pads, split by tire tracks, speckled with hoof prints and littered with invasives like cheat grass and Lapula.

Sclerocactus wetlandicus

When we weren’t monitoring empty quadrats, we were diving into seed collection. Levi and I are becoming more and more independent every day, scouting out populations, keeping an eye on phenology and collecting bags and bags of seeds. So far we’ve made 6 collections. We’ve collected Cymopterus bulbosus, Allium textile, Artemisia spinecens, Graiya spinosa, Cymopterus terebinthus and Lupinus pussilus. Timing is difficult, we’ve missed some opportunities and collected some too early. We are using a big white board to track all of our populations. June is a very busy time, everything seems to be ready all at the same time.

Allium textile umbels

This last week was the CLM Workshop at the Chicago Botanic Gardens and it was a stellar week. CLM interns are pretty rad people, if I do say so myself.We got to hear from inspiring professionals in the field like, Peggy Olwell, Plant Conservation Program Manager at the BLM, Krissa Skogen, Conservation Scientist and our very own CLM program manager, and Carol Dawson, Colorado’s State Botanist for the BLM. The botany of the West review was extremely helpful! We were able to explore the beautiful botanic gardens and get to know our peers and share our experiences thus far.

monitoring methods

Getting to know that dichotmous key

We networked and networked and networked some more. It was wonderful to see some real-life trees and chat with some like-minded people. Now we’re back in Vernal and we’re right back to work. This week will bring temperatures in the high 90s and lots more seeds. We’re going to check out some Erysimum capitatum, Asclepias cryptoceras and check on some Oenotheras for Krissa. Hope all my fellow interns are back safe at their various stations. Can’t wait to hear how everyone’s seasons unfold!

Peace,

Hannah

Hello from Needles CA!

This week we were welcomed back to the Mojave Desert from the beautiful Chicago Botanic Garden to temperatures above 120 degrees all week. Today it’s 125, so I was in the office today catching up on paperwork we put on hold for days just like this! For this blog post, I plan to catch you all up on what the Needles team has been up to for the past while. I had written a post for last month, but accidentally did not press “post”, so for this post I will combine both, starting from the oldest events to the most recent!

Early last month we were invited to attend a ceremony celebrating the designation of California’s three new National Monuments, Sand To Snow, Castle Mountains, and Mojave Trails. Mojave Trails National Monument alone covers 1.6 million acres of stunning desert landscape, encompassing parts of Route 66, a volcano, prime habitat for many of the desert’s flora and fauna, as well as historic Native American lands. Our office in Needles is excited to now be the caretakers of the Mojave Trails National Monument.

Route 66, with Amboy Crater barely visible in the background (look for the black flat topped mountain)

Having never been to such a ceremony I did not know what to expect. It was a great experience! Those indispensable to the effort to dedicate these lands spoke, from local government officials, state officials, local Native Americans who have been protecting and stewarding these lands for generations, to Sally Jewell, the US Secretary of the Interior. It was a unique experience and such a pleasure to meet Sally Jewell along with the other interns in our office. From our time speaking to her she seemed to be a compassionate woman with a deep love for nature.

Meeting Sally Jewell and the unveiling of the new monument signs!

The following day we led a group of SCA interns to Amboy Crater, an inactive volcano off of Route 66 which is now a part of the Mojave Trails Monument. With SCA we worked on seed collection of Creosote, Larrea tridentata. It was a new experience for them as none of them had done seed collections before! Due to our unusually rainy weather these past two months we have been needing to routinely check up on many populations of various species to see when they will be ready. Larrea tridentata is one of those species. We have since returned to Amboy three times to collect what we can that is ready, and  anticipate being able to hopefully finish the collection this week!

Amboy Crater surrounded by Larrea tridentata

Later that month, we met with Bighorn Sheep Biologists from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to gain some monitoring and radio telemetry experience! This day was easily one of the most energy intensive days I have had thus far but it was so worth it! We broke up into teams to asses the populations in the Clark Mountains, and recorded a total of 88 sheep! This day called for intense hiking and mountain climbing to follow the sheep tracks, but was a valuable experience. I learned radio telemetry hands on, how to spot and distinguish sheep pellets, as well as gained a newfound appreciation for what my body was capable of (even if I was exhausted and wanted to get home by the end).

John teaching me radio telemetry! (He gave me permission to post this) 🙂

Top of Castle Mountain, highest peak in the Marble Mountains. We made it!

This past month has been a whirlwind of catching seed before the plants crisp up in this desert heat. We have made 15 collections so far, and anticipate having 20 by the end, if all goes to plan.

The next collection that we are looking forward to the most is the Joshua tree collection (Yucca brevifolia)!! We have gone out to our populations a few times to check on the seeds. The last time we went they were still unripe on the inside, but in time they will be good to go! That collection will be fun! We have apple picker sticks to pull the pods off the trees with, and tarps to catch anything that falls in the process so our seeds don’t touch the ground. Here is a picture of what the seeds looked like when we last checked, they’re such large pods!

As you can see, still very green and fleshy two weeks ago!

For the rest of this month we will be running around the desert trying to catch populations of Senna armata, Eschscholzia minutiflora, Krameria bicolor, Senegalia greggii, possibly Saliva dorrii, and finishing up our Larrea tridentata before everything out here dries up!

This past week I was in Chicago attending the CLM Workshop with many of you. It was such a great time meeting you all and getting to hear about your experiences all over the country. Hopefully we will be able to keep in touch!

My favorite lecture during the workshop was the hands on section of the “Measuring and Monitoring Plant Populations” session, where we were able to try out the techniques we had learned in class. The garden was spectacular and so well maintained! I am planning to post about the workshop in more detail very soon.

This is the start of my 5th week in Palm Springs, California. I drove here 860 miles in total from California’s North Coast in Humboldt County. I lived there for 3 years while attending Humboldt State University. The climate on the North Coast is nearly a constant 60 degrees F, with a humidity of around 80% so it always feels about 10 degrees warmer than it actually is. There are redwood trees and I was right by the ocean. I began my journey across California to my new home in the desert promptly after graduation. I packed up my car, and my two cats and two days later I was in a whole new world with a whole new climate that I was completely unfamiliar with. As I write this, today’s forecast predicts 122 F with the relative humidity at 14%. Of course Yesterday they said it was going to be 114 F and it got to at least 119 F, so we’ll see how hot it gets today!

My first desert sunrise!

My first day at the Palm Springs BLM office included a tour of the field site that we would be focusing on over the course of my 5 month internship. The place is located next to the Salton Sea and has an elevation of -226 feet below sea level, which makes the area hotter than Palm Springs who’s elevation is 479 feet above sea level. I will be working at Dos Palmas Oasis (elevation -210 feet below sea level) and part of it sits right on top of the famous San Andreas Fault. The landscape is dominated by Larrea tridentata or Creosote bush (which can live 1000 years!!!!), Allenrolfia occidentalis or Pickleweed, Atriplex lentiformis or Quailbush, and several tree species including two types of Misquote. I’m currently in the process of learning the rest of the species in the area. In addition to plant species, the Oasis is habitat for the endangered Desert pupfish that we will be monitoring and protecting and also offers critical habitat for an endangered Rail (which is a bird).

Driving to a field transect site at Dos Palmas

The waters of the Oasis are however in big trouble. Let’s go into some history, this area started off as a natural Oasis and a critical watering hole in the desert as Europeans passed by 150 years ago and of course also for the indigenous people who knew about the place and lived here since time immemorial. Things changed dramatically here in the 1930’s as construction began of the Coachella Canal, a 122 mile long unlined canal that brought water from the All American Canal that channels Colorado River water. The water now is brought across the desert in the Coachella Canal to farms in the Coachella valley. This unlined canal also inadvertently provided water all along its expanse via seepage through the ground and greatly increased the water at Dos Palmas as water here cannot penetrate the depths of the ground due to the presence of the San Andreas Fault. In 2006 a new concrete lined canal was dug parallel to the old canal and when the water was diverted into the new lined canal the water supply for Dos Palmas was cut off.

Three years after the water was diverted into the new canal and Dos Palmas was cut off from it’s water supply, mitigation efforts began where by some water from the canal was siphoned into the old unlined canal where it could once again flow through the ground to recharge the waters of the desert oasis. There are large(ish) seepage ponds in place for Dos Palmas as well as small ones specifically designed to be “sheep drinkers” for the desert big horned sheep that live in the adjacent mountains. Pipe lines were also put in place to feed even more water back into Dos Palmas and protect its endangered species. This was a wonderful improvement from nothing, but 1.3 years had passed with no canal water entering the system and 2. This new supply of water was next to nothing compared to what Dos Palmas once received from the canal for about 60 years.

Monitoring efforts began 6 years ago and continue today. They document the plants in the area and their response to the mitigation efforts. All in all quite a lot of Dos Palmas, particularity an area known as the San Andreas Oasis, is looking very sad. Plants are dead or dying, Oasis’s are dry or drying, and in response many wells have been dug to keep some of the Oasis filled. However not every Oasis has a well and some oasis’s are completely dry. Don’t get me wrong though, this area is still beautiful and the Oasis’s that have water are spectacular!

A water meter sits high and dry at the San Andreas Oasis

Here is a view of a healthy Oasis filled with water

Much of my job this summer aside from SOS (Seeds of Success) work, will be monitoring plant communities at Dos Palmas as well as monitoring the endangered species that call this place home. As long as I don’t step on a rattlesnake (and there are a lot of snakes out here!) and I stay hydrated I think I am going to continue enjoying this work as much as I have since I arrived. This internship is fantastic, I love working and I love the desert!!!!

Heading down to the Salton Sea to rescue endangered fish in an area that was rapidly drying up. Sitting on the water (those white dots) are American White Pelicans

When I moved from the mountains of Wyoming to the desert of Southeastern Arizona it was obvious things were going to be different.  The landscape, the culture, the flora/fauna, and especially the climate all greeted me with a stark contrast with what I had been used to.  With all that being different, one thing never wavered, and that was my love for the outdoors and biology.  I work with the BLM field office in Safford Arizona monitoring native fish and controlling invasive fish populations, which means getting down and dirty in the water and muck on a daily basis.  It’s awesome.  Recently, our field team went on our annual monitoring trip on the Gila River to assess the populations of the fish in there.  The section of the river we were in falls into the Gila Box Riparian National Conservation Area, which restricts motor vehicle access, meaning that our typical protocol of driving to each site would not fly.  This restriction meant that in order to do the job we needed to travel the old school way: via water.  Roughly twenty miles of river and four monitoring sites greeted us over the course of three days.  At these sites we delineated areas based on habitat, electro-shocked to census various fish species, and used a device called a gravelometer to measure the size of the rocks on the river bottom.  The whole time I was in awe of how beautiful the landscape was and the fact that it was an incredible thought that this was ACTUALLY my job.  I mean, there’s not many jobs out there where one can say they get to be outside in gorgeous scenery doing a fulfilling job like conserving life on earth.  Although I am only a month into this job,  it has already taught me invaluable life lessons, such as the fact that no matter where you are there is a beauty in being outside and away from everything.  I can’t wait to see what the next four months have in store and where this opportunity takes me.  Until then though, cheers.